CHAPTER XXX
MY DEAR AUNT ERNIE,--At last I have a chance of sending you aletter--and, this time at any rate, you won't have to complain aboutmy sending you no news. I'll promise you that, before I begin, and youneedn't get scared either, because it's all good. I've been awfullylucky, and all because that fellow Cathcart turned out such a funk anda bounder. It's the oddest thing in the world too, that old Cis shouldhave written me to pick up all the news I could about Scarlett Trent andsend it to you. Why, he's within a few feet of me at this moment, andI've been seeing him continually ever since I came here. But there, I'lltry and begin at the beginning.
"You know Cathcart got the post of Consulting Surveyor and Engineer tothe Bekwando Syndicate, and he was head man at our London place. Well,they sent me from Capetown to be junior to him, and a jolly good movefor me too. I never did see anything in Cathcart! He's a lazy sort ofchap, hates work, and I guess he only got the job because his uncle hadgot a lot of shares in the business. It seems he never wanted to come,hates any place except London, which accounts for a good deal.
"All the time when we were waiting, he wasn't a bit keen and kept onrotting about the good times he might have been having in London, andwhat a fearful country we were stranded in, till he almost gave me theblues, and if there hadn't been some jolly good shooting and a few nicechaps up at the Fort, I should have been miserable. As it was, I lefthim to himself a good deal, and he didn't like that either. I thinkAttra was a jolly place, and the landing in surf boats was no end offun. Cathcart got beastly wet, and you should have seen what a stew hewas in because he'd put on a beautiful white suit and it got spoilt.Well, things weren't very lively at Attra at first, I'm bound to admit.No one seemed to know much about the Bekwando Land Company, and thecountry that way was very rough. However, we got sent out at last, andCathcart, he simply scoffed at the whole thing from the first. Therewas no proper labour, not half enough machinery, and none of the rightsort--and the gradients and country between Bekwando and the sea wereawful. Cathcart made a few reports and we did nothing but kick our heelsabout until HE came. You'll see I've written that in big letters, andI tell you if ever a man deserved to have his name written in capitalsScarlett Trent does, and the oddest part of it is he knows you, and hewas awfully decent to me all the time.
"Well, out he went prospecting, before he'd been in the countrytwenty-four hours, and he came back quite cheerful. Then he spoke toCathcart about starting work, and Cathcart was a perfect beast. He asgood as told him that he'd come out under false pretences, that thewhole affair was a swindle and that the road could not be made. Trentdidn't hesitate, I can tell you. There were no arguments or promiseswith him. He chucked Cathcart on the spot, turned him out of the place,and swore he'd make the road himself. I asked if I might stop, and Ithink he was glad, anyhow we've been ever such pals ever since, and Inever expect to have such a time again as long as I live! But do youknow, Auntie, we've about made that road. When I see what we've done,sometimes I can't believe it. I only wish some of the bigwigs who'venever been out of an office could see it. I know I'll hate to come away.
"You'd never believe the time we had--leaving out the fighting, which Iam coming to by and by. We were beastly short of all sorts of machineryand our labour was awful. We had scarcely any at first, but Trent found'em somehow, Kru boys and native Zulus and broken-down Europeans--anyone who could hold a pick. More came every day, and we simply cut ourway through the country. I think I was pretty useful, for you see I wasthe only chap there who knew even a bit about engineering or practicalsurveying, and I'd sit up all night lots of times working the thing out.We had a missionary came over the first Sunday, and wanted to preach,but Trent stopped him. 'We've got to work here,' he said, 'and Sundayor no Sunday I can't let my men stop to listen to you in the cool of theday. If you want to preach, come and take a pick now, and preach whenthey're resting,' and he did and worked well too, and afterwards when wehad to knock off, he preached, and Trent took the chair and made 'em alllisten. Well, when we got a bit inland we had the natives to deal with,and if you ask me I believe that's one reason Cathcart hated the wholething so. He's a beastly coward I think, and he told me once he'd neverlet off a revolver in his life. Well, they tried to surprise us onenight, but Trent was up himself watching, and I tell you we did give 'embeans. Great, ugly-looking, black chaps they were. Aunt Ernie, I shallnever forget how I felt when I saw them come creeping through the long,rough grass with their beastly spears all poised ready to throw. And nowfor my own special adventure. Won't you shiver when you read this! Iwas taken prisoner by one of those chaps, carried off to their beastlyvillage and very nearly murdered by a chap who seemed to be a crossbetween an executioner and a high-priest, and who kept dancing round me,singing a lot of rot and pointing a knife at me. You see, I was righton the outside of the fighting and I got a knock on the head with thebutt-end of a spear, and was a bit silly for a moment, and a great chap,who'd seen me near Trent and guessed I was somebody, picked me up asthough I'd been a baby and carried me off. Of course I kicked up noend of a row as soon as I came to, but what with the firing and thescreeching no one heard me, and Trent said it was half an hour beforehe missed me and an hour before they started in pursuit. Anyhow, thereI was, about morning-time when you were thinking of having your cup oftea, trussed up like a fowl in the middle of the village, and all thenatives, beastly creatures, promenading round me and making faces andbawling out things--oh, it was beastly I can tell you! Then just as theyseemed to have made up their mind to kill me, up strode Scarlett Trentalone, if you please, and he walked up to the whole lot of 'em as boldas brass. He'd got a long way ahead of the rest and thought they meantmischief, so he wouldn't wait for the others but faced a hundred of themwith a revolver in his hand, and I can tell you things were livelythen. I'd never be able to describe the next few minutes--one man Trentknocked down with his fist, and you could hear his skull crack, then heshot the chap who had been threatening me, and cut my bonds, and thenthey tried to resist us, and I thought it was all over. They werehorribly afraid of Trent though, and while they were closing round usthe others came up and the natives chucked it at once. They used to bea very brave race, but since they were able to get rum for their timberand ivory, they're a lazy and drunken lot. Well, I must tell you whatTrent did then. He went to the priest's house where the gods werekept--such a beastly hole--and he burned the place before the eyes ofall the natives. I believe they thought every moment that we should bestruck dead, and they stood round in a ring, making an awful row, butthey never dared interfere. He burnt the place to the ground, and thenwhat do you think he did? From the King downward he made every Jack oneof them come and work on his road. You'll never believe it, but it'sperfectly true. They looked upon him as their conqueror, and they camelike lambs when he ordered it. They think they're slaves you know, anddon't understand their pay, but they get it every week and same as allthe other labourers--and oh, Aunt Ernie, you should see the King workwith a pickaxe! He is fat and so clumsy and so furiously angry, but he'stoo scared of Trent to do anything but obey orders, and there he workshour after hour, groaning, and the perspiration rolls off him as thoughhe were in a Turkish bath. I could go on telling you odd things thathappen here for hours, but I must finish soon as the chap is startingwith the mail. I am enjoying it. It is something like life I can tellyou, and aren't I lucky? Trent made me take Cathcart's place. I amgetting 800 pounds a year, and only fancy it, he says he'll see that thedirectors make me a special grant. Everything looks very different herenow, and I do hope the Company will be a success. There's whole heapsof mining machinery landed and waiting for the road to be finished togo up, and people seem to be streaming into the place. I wonder whatCathcart will say when he knows that the road is as good as done, andthat I've got his job!
"Chap called for mail. Goodbye.
"Ever your affectionate
"FRED.
"Trent is a brick."
Ernestine read the letter slowly, line by line, word by word. To tel
lthe truth it was absorbingly interesting to her. Already there hadcome rumours of the daring and blunt, resistless force with whichthis new-made millionaire had confronted a gigantic task. His tersecommunications had found their way into the Press, and in them and inthe boy's letter she seemed to discover something Caesaric. That nightit was more than usually difficult for her to settle down to her ownwork. She read her nephew's letter more than once and continuallyshe found her thoughts slipping away--traveling across the ocean toa tropical strip of country, where a heterogeneous crowd of men weretoiling and digging under a blazing sun. And, continually too, sheseemed to see a man's face looking steadily over the sea to her, as hestood upright for a moment and rested from his toil. She was very fondof the boy--but the face was not his!